Superman/Injustice 2
Injustice 2 Superman is a true sight to behold. He has the highest total base stats among Gold characters, a first among equals in this aspect, with the highest health, all without the inclusion of his passive, which gives him yet another large boost to both stats '' and allows him to repeatedly and selectively negate massive amounts of damage. Due to that, he can sometimes be considered to be the most powerful gold character in the game, and for a good reason. He started a new era of gold characters by defining a ceiling of total base stats (2800 without his passive) that has never been surpassed, the introduction of Metal characters notwithstanding. He can be unlocked through his Challenge Mode. Otherwise, he can be randomly obtained from the Injustice 2 Promo Pack or as a guaranteed pull from the Injustice 2 Superman Pack. However, obtaining him from a pack will not unlock him for direct promotions. Strategy With the inclusion of the 5% bonus Damage and Health per promotion from his passive, his base stats can be boosted up to 1950/2250 (50% boost in total). Superman's special-negating passive will only be triggered when a hit from a Special Attack would land unblocked; if one does, that and all subsequent hits of that special plus any status effect the special would have (such as bleed or power drain) will not affect Superman. This gives the user some control, as he can choose to block specials that will do low damage and have no effect if blocked. During this effect, Superman is completely invulnerable. Damage over time effects or other unique effects such as Harley Quinn/Arkham Knight's surprise attack will not damage him during the special's duration, even though they might not be caused by a special. A block breaking special may knock down Superman if he is not blocking and his passive will negate the special's damage. If he '''is' blocking, block breaking specials can break his block, forcing his passive to negate the special. Interestingly, in the latter case, the block breaking hit can still reflect special damage if he has relevant gear (e.g. LexCorp Chest Armor V2) even though the special is negated. This is particularly noticeable against one-hit blocking breaking special 2s, like Harley Quinn's bomb and Ares/Prime's God Smack. If Superman is the starting character on a team, his passive will be active at the beginning of the match. There are basically two different ways to use Superman with the effect of his passive in mind. The first is to have Superman tag in and out as much as possible and avoid blocking the first incoming special altogether every time. This strategy primarily focuses on minimizing incoming special damage for the entire course of a battle. The second strategy is counter-intuitive and to the opposite end, and is to have Superman block as many enemy SP's as much as possible, utilizing his passive relatively little; then, when Superman does take an SP unblocked, he can be switched out and have his passive replenished. This strategy is relatively conservative and is the best way to have his passive limitedly activate on attacks that can critically threaten the team, such as one from a tagging-in Bane/Luchador. Hawkgirl/Prime makes an excellent partner for perhaps one or both strategies: she allows him to tag in and out faster, and, when switching her in or out, she employs a snare, preventing the opponent from tagging out. A third character that would benefit from Hawkgirl/Prime would be an ideal possible third pick; one that has particular synergy with Superman/Injustice 2 is Hawkgirl/Regime, as she will disable the opponent's specials upon tag-in for about as long as she is forced to remain tagged in (if paired with Hawkgirl/Prime), effectively bottling up the opponent's power for Superman to painlessly mitigate. If Clark Kent's Glasses is then put on Superman, an odd team built around disabling specials can then be employed. If players want to make Injustice 2 Superman a full-on tank, the 3/3 Fourth World Set is indisputably the best bet, as the set further increases Superman's already phenomenal health. The resurrection and regeneration effects will also make Superman extremely difficult for his enemies to take down. This is why using the Fourth World Set on Injustice 2 Superman is one of the most popular setups for said character. Another strategy for I2 Superman would be to use him as a nuke, using his high damage stat to potentially wipe out multiple opponents with his SP2 by giving him the Heart of Darkness, Tantu Totem, and the LexCorp Chestplate V2. Unlike standard invulnerability, when his passive shields him from a special, he does not gain power for taking the unblocked hits. If he is basic attacking, it would also be interrupted and Superman can take no action during this invulnerability. Similar to Deathstroke/Arkham Origins and Scorpion/Mortal Kombat X, the stats on his card do not reflect the bonus that he gets from his passive, but it would still take effect during a match. Previously, if Injustice 2 Superman is stunned/frozen beforehand (with a non-special source, such as Green Arrow/Arrow or Bane/Luchador's passive), his passive will negate the next special without cleansing the disable. He will remain stunned/frozen, allowing you to hit him with another special if the duration permits. This has been changed and he will regain control after his passive is used. Interactions Good With * Hawkgirl/Prime: As mentioned above. *'Batman/Dawn of Justice', The Flash/Reverse Flash, The Flash/Wally West Rebirth: When any of them are combined with Superman, a very annoying team based around dodging specials is created. Good Against * Deathstroke/Arkham Origins: Deathstroke's critical and unblockable Point Blank can be rendered useless by Injustice 2 Superman's passive. Superman can block the attack and prevent a lot of the damage without using his passive if Deathstroke doesn't reach 200% on the attack; if Deathstroke does reach 200% and Superman's block is broken, his passive will trigger. * Sinestro/Antimatter: A rather unorthodox one, as each time he's tagged out, his passive will restart, thus the first hit from Sinestro will be negated, but if he has 3 bars of power already, this would still be counted. * Bane/Luchador: Superman can maintain the integrity of his passive by blocking while facing other characters. Bane/Luchador as such can not come in and "sucker punch" Superman (and the rest of the team with area effect if the right gear is equipped) with an absurdly powerful attack, as Superman's passive negates Bane's unblockable stun. *'Ares/Prime': Same as above. * Sinestro/Green Lantern: Though Sinestro gains a 50% damage increase to his next special upon enemy tag-out, the damage boost would be completely nullified by Superman's passive. * Batman/Arkham Origins: Superman can easily avoid his passive, making his SP2 completely useless. *'Killer Frost': The ability to be immune to her SP1 effect can be critical in defeating her, and his passive can be useful against both versions: The ability to dodge large amounts of damage means he has a lesser need to heal than most, negating Regime's passive. This same ability also means he has more time to build up power against Prime; when other characters would be nearing death, he would still have a large portion of his health. Countered By *'Characters with punishing basic attacks.' **'Deathstroke/Flashpoint': On a full Flashpoint team, Deathstroke's long combo ender allows him to remove large chunks of health in a single light combo. Plus, with Batman/Flashpoint, the chance for increased crit damage greatly boosts Deathstroke's damage output. **'Green Arrow/Rebirth': Green Arrow's long combo ender makes it easier to bypass Superman's invulnerability. **'The Flash/Metahuman': A somewhat unorthodox one, but after using a special, Flash's passive allows him to attack at lightning speed, taking out a large amount of Superman's gargantuan health without using a special as one of Superman's main downfalls is characters/gears that utilize basic attacks instead of specials. **'Green Lantern/Jessica Cruz Rebirth': Similar to above, her powerful basic attacks are not affected by Superman's passive. However, both her team-based passive and stun on combo-ender are useless if Superman still has his shield up. **'The Arkham Knight': Same as above: Arkham Knight's unusually strong basic attacks render him less affected than most by Superman's passive, although the AOE on his SP2 would be completely negated if his SP2 did no damage in the first place. **'Batman/Flashpoint': Due to Batman's passive, his "Destructive Blows" would work even for his Basic attacks, therefore, could render Superman's passive useless since there are possibly no need to use any Specials at all to defeat him. *'Batgirl': A very odd counter, Batgirl's mid-special stun will persist through Superman's passive (despite being a status effect attached to a special), and therefore, could allow for Batgirl to use another SP1 while Superman is still stunned and after his passive is disabled, possibly allowing for a huge damage boost from Cloak of Destiny. Batgirl/Cassandra Cain can make the best use of this technique, as her starting animation is quicker than her Prime variant, and she can chain multiple SP1s together in rapid succession, although Batgirl/Prime can still use this technique effectively. *'Superman/Man of Steel': His passive can allow him to break Superman/Injustice 2's shield and attack again with no meter lost. *'Tantu Totem': Superman's passive lets him take no '''damage from a special; this allows the Tantu Totem to chug down his passive, get it's user's power back, and then letting them pummel Superman/Injustice 2 into submission. This will not happen if he's blocking a special. *Harley Quinn/Suicide Squad: The surprise attack on her SP2 (when paired with either Suicide Squad Jokers) can deal a lot of one-hit damage unaffected by block, and it is not counted as a special, thereby circumventing Superman's passive. *Heart of Darkness: The Heart of Darkness, though a rather unorthodox method is a counter to Superman/Injustice 2 because if a character is knocked out by a special by someone using the Heart of Darkness, and Superman tags in, the DOT will be applied to him taking away his invulnerability passive. For example: When used with the Tantu Totem on a character with a 1-hit nuke it can be used to great effect as a special would knockout a character, Superman would tag in and the special could be reactivated immediately afterwards allowing you to Knock-Out or do a large amount of damage to Superman without penalty, this will help you KO Superman much faster, saving time. Abilities Here are '''Superman's abilities. Stay Down has a different animation when blocked, similar to Batman/Arkham Knight's Arkham Assault. Support Cards and Gear Stats Due to the 5% Damage and Health boost per Promotion, Injustice 2 Superman at Elite X (50% Damage and Health Boost overall) actually has the final stats of 107,801/252,720...surpassing the Metal Characters at EVII, even if they are max augmented on Damage and Health! Trivia *His artifacts are: Head Piece, Chest Piece, Cloak, Boots, and Gloves. *His s2, Stay Down shares its name with Batman/Red Son's s2. *Both him and Aquaman/Injustice 2 are the first Injustice 2 characters to be released. **They are both the first cards to reach the gold base stats "cap" of 2800. However, they are also slightly cheaper than many cards that have lower total base stats, including but not limited to: Deadshot/Suicide Squad, Yellow Lantern Hal Jordan, Hawkgirl/Earth 2, Scorpion/Klassic, Batgirl/Arkham Knight, The Flash/Earth 2, The Joker/Suicide Squad, Green Arrow/Rebirth, Harley Quinn/Suicide Squad, and Killer Croc/Arkham. *You'll receive a free copy of a Silver Character upon completing Battle 10 in Challenge 4 in Standard difficulty. *While his combo-ender is the same as Superman/Godfall, his SP1 has the same animations as his previous counterpart, Superman/Dawn of Justice. *If his passive is triggered by Batman/Arkham Knight's Arkham Assault special, the special will display the blocked version of the animation, regardless of whether Superman was blocking or not. **Additionally, just like Batman/Arkham Knight, Superman/Injustice 2 actually has 2 different animations for when the opponent blocks, albeit the main difference in his SP2 is that when the opponent blocks on the first hit, the second hit will look the same as Superman/Dawn of Justice's Combo ender. This change is also shared with The Joker Unhinged/Suicide Squad, Darkseid/Prime, and Batman/Flashpoint. *If an opponent is in minimal distance to him, upon his second hit (before he flies up in the air with the sun shining on him), it will not actually hit the opponent, but rather, they'd just stay down due to the first hit, and,'' if fast enough'', they can actually block before Superman lands the third hit. *His Super Move is the original, and not the one as shown in the preview gameplay for Injustice 2's console version as seen here. *Despite his passive not technically providing an immunity against powerdrain, if any character that can powerdrain uses their special (Nightwing, Lex Luthor, Green Arrow, etc), and the hits are unblocked, it will display the message "Powerdrain Immune" instead of the name of his passive. Additionally, his passive does not negate the 50 flat damage power drain specials deal. *During Superman's May 2017 Challenge Mode, it was possible to find a bronze opponent in an expert match (tier 3 bronze/silver), when it should be a silver opponent. Category:Cards Category:Characters Category:Gold characters Category:Challenge characters Category:Justice League characters Category:Injustice 2 characters Category:Mobile-exclusive characters Category:Promotion Effect Category:Tag effect Category:Invulnerbility Category:BLOCK effect Category:Immune to Unblockable Category:Immune to Power Drain Category:Different Special Animations